1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a switching device having an electromagnetic switching element and a controller, the switching element including two coils on one core which act on a shared armature. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a starting device for an internal combustion engine, in particular for a motor vehicle, having a starter motor, a coupling device for temporarily coupling the starter motor to the internal combustion engine, and a starter controller. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a method for an electromagnetic switching device, having a switching element and a controller, two coils on one core being activated by the controller while acting on a shared armature.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electromagnets, relays, and transformers or similar inductive loads are known, having windings on a core, which are switched as inductive loads.
Furthermore, a starter relay having the double function of a switching and meshing relay in a starting device for meshing a starter pinion with the ring gear of an internal combustion engine and for activating a starter motor is known, in order to crank an internal combustion engine.
A switching principle is known in starting devices, according to which a pull-in winding and a hold-in winding are situated on a core, in order to mesh a starter pinion driven by the starter motor with a ring gear of the internal combustion engine using a high starting power and a high starting velocity and to switch the starter motor using a maximum current. Using the hold-in winding, the starter relay is held in the closed state, while the current for the pull-in winding is reduced. The hold-in winding is directly connected to the vehicle chassis ground. In contrast, the pull-in winding is connected via the starter motor to the vehicle chassis ground. When the switch for the starter motor on the starter relay is closed and the starter motor has started, the pull-in current is reduced, since the positive pole potential of the starter battery is now directly connected to the starter motor. In this switching principle, even with permanently excited starter motors, immediate reactivation is prevented, since the induced voltage of the starter motor does not permit a full pull-in current.
An alternative is known for implementing the relay having a single winding and, after the pull-in, reducing the hold-in current using a current regulator or controller, for example, a two-point regulator or a pulse width modulation. However, such a relay must have a large winding, namely a winding having a high number of turns for the small hold-in current and/or made of a thick electrical conducting wire for a sufficient pull-in force.
Efforts have been made to introduce starting systems into vehicles, in which the activation of the starter motor and the activation of the meshing mechanism take place separately, to implement start-stop systems having a high availability of the internal combustion engine. In these start-stop systems, there are meshing strategies, according to which the starter pinion driven by the starter motor is first accelerated and, as much as possible, is meshed at a synchronous rotational speed with the ring gear of a coasting internal combustion engine.
Published European patent document EP 0 848 159 B1 describes a starting device having an electronic controller for start-stop operation, a starter motor and a starter relay being activatable separately to mesh a starter pinion with the ring gear of an internal combustion engine.
Published German patent application document DE 10 2006 011 644 A1 describes a starting device and a starting method for starting an internal combustion engine in a start-stop operating mode. According to a particular method, the starter pinion is meshable with a rotating ring gear of a coasting internal combustion engine at sufficiently approximated peripheral velocities. The meshing relay having a winding is energized with a current for meshing the pinion; the current for holding the starter pinion in the meshed state is basically reducible down to zero amperes.
A device for activating an electromagnetic switching element having a double winding and three semiconductor switches is known to the applicant. Rapid startup and shutdown procedures are implementable by forcing energizing in the same and opposing directions on the basis of certain switch positions with equal number of turns of the coils.
It is an object of the present invention to refine a switching device, a starting device, and a method for operating the switching device of the type mentioned at the outset in such a way that an operation of the armature is activatable as rapidly and easily as possible with low power consumption.